The Seventh Fantasy
by Wandering Aesthetic
Summary: What begins as a rebellion against an evil corporation becomes much more. You know the drill. A Final Fantasy VII novelization. A labor of love, mostly true to the game, altered and embroidered as necessary.
1. Bombing Mission

She looked into the green glow of the mako, green like the first tiny leaves of her seedlings, green like the Lifestream, green like materia, green like magic. Mako filled this city, this city that was once several cities, or so her adopted mother told her. The city fed on it, sucked it up with the eight reactors on the edge of the wheel-shaped city, like some massive tic sucking on a vein.

The blood that fed the city was mako, the Lifestream concentrated and thickened. In its natural state, Lifestream was flowing and ephemeral, like a breeze made visible. In the Mako form it was the consistency of pudding, or glue, or congealing blood. It flooded this city so completely that it sometimes popped up in gutters, sinks, and puddles.

Even in this perverted form, it was still Lifestream, life's blood, and it spoke to her, even here in the gutter. It spoke to her in more than words, and only to her as far as she knew: voices from the future, voices from the past, voices from the here and now. Most often her mother spoke to her, her real mother, whom she barely remembered in physical life. Her mother gave her advice, warnings for the future, stories from the past. Sometimes she would catch a glimpse of what she thought was her father, too. Sometimes she would hear people she never met, ancient and wise, young and foolish, good and evil. She tried not to listen to the more malicious voices (her mother had warned her against that). Sometimes she got lost in the lives of butterflies, or trees, and her mother would gently call her back, tell her to go back to the present world, and not to waste her own, precious, borrowed piece of the Lifestream.

All the voices together made up the voice of the Planet, a vast collective consciousness, nigh indestructible, nigh incomprehensible. Tonight she looked through the eyes of the planet for a very simple purpose: to see the stars. She couldn't see them with her own eyes, not with the bright lights of the upper city and the violent glow of vaporized Mako which spurted out of the reactors. She saw the stars now as no other mortal saw them. She saw their planets circling about them. She saw how they looked when they were first formed, how they would look on the verge of death. The constellations shifted and danced. The arm of the galaxy spun into nothingness.

_You must go back, child._

It was not words, but an idea that formed in her mind of its own accord. It was the voice of the Planet, clearer than it had ever been to her before. And it did not merely speak, but spoke _to _her.

_I am threatened, child. We are all threatened._

That frightened her. What could threaten the entire planet, the vast living consciousness that she had lived in and been guided by her entire life?

_Do not worry, child. _And suddenly, she didn't. _You can make it better, if you are willing. And you are willing. _She smiled. It would be okay, and she would be important. _But you must go, child._

She pulled away from the little spurting fountain of Mako, gathered up her basket of flowers and her staff, and stepped out of the alleyway into the busy street, her feet walking, her mind floating. She enjoyed the clack of her shoes on the concrete, the sound of traffic, people's voices, and the rumble of the elevated train rolling around the central pillar to the plate above.

That train carried a routine shipment to the Shinra Number one Mako Reactor. Workers would unload empty barrels to be filled with worn out parts, engine gunk, and over-used and volatile Mako. They would then roll the previous week's garbage onto the train to be disposed of elsewhere. The train would also carry the next shift of guards, not simple security guards, but members of Shinra's own army, more powerful than any nation's.

The train would arrive. The night shift would exit the train, the day shift would board. The whole process would take less than ten minutes.

Or at least, that's how it had taken place for years before.

The train rolled into the grubby little station. Two red uniformed Shinra officers waited on the platform to receive it. The train's wheels squealed to a halt on the tracks. The men waited about thirty seconds. No one exited the train. No doors opened. The junior of the two men turned to his commanding officer.

"Sir, should we--?"

He never finished his question, because a bullet had ripped through his brain, splattering it on the concrete wall behind him.

The remaining officer turned, horrified, to look for an attacker. There was none to be seen. A passenger door opened and a slight young woman stepped out, dressed in jeans and a green t-shirt under dinted and scuffed chest and shoulder armor. At the same time a tan and rough-looking man jumped from the top of a freight car. In his panic, the officer forgot the pistol at his side and charged toward him, but he was held off by the woman, who planted a side thrust kick into his midsection. He went flying, hit his head on a steel ladder attached to one of the train cars, and crumpled.

Another door opened and another assailant stepped out, a man, squat, fat, and completely unremarkable except for being armed to the teeth, a bandolier of grenades across his chest and a belt of ammunition strung across his belly, for the machine gun cradled in his arms. He scanned the scene then followed his comrades, who were already hurrying for the entrance to the reactor.

Out of the door the woman had entered from came another attacker, a bear of a man, hugely tall, broad, and burly. He was dark-skinned and bare-chested except for a small (relative to the man) utility vest. He would have been remarkable merely for his size, but it did not end there. His left arm was covered with intricately patterned black tattoos, just a few shades darker than his skin. His right arm was similarly patterned, until it ended, just below the elbow. In place of forearm and hand there was an enormous, six-barreled machine gun.

The giant gestured over his shoulder with the gun arm, shouted "C'mon, newcomer! Follow me!" and ran after the others.

A last man leapt down from atop a boxcar. He was at first glance unremarkable, but at second glance very remarkable indeed. He was dressed in dusty purple. His arms were bare. His oversized belt bore an odd insignia. He was armored, but only partially and haphazardly, with spiked plate on his left shoulder, a bracer of some dark and heavy metal, thick leather gloves and heavy boots. He was of average height, fit and wiry, but not imposing. His hair was blonde and spiky, his eyes an electric blue that glowed faintly in the dim light. He would have been handsome, boyish even, but there was a promise of danger about him, heightened by the eyes and the enormous sword he carried on his back. The blade was at least a foot wide, and was as long, from point to pommel, as the man was tall. It was held to his back by a complex sheath of black leather straps. He carried it as if it weighed nothing.

Two blue clad guards, their faces obscured by helmets, hoods, and goggles came running down a nearby set of concrete stairs.

The swordsman stretched his arms out in front of him, fingers splayed. A green glow emanated from one of two perfectly round green stones embedded in his blade, forming a circle around him. Lightening arced from the swordsman to the first of the guards, who fell instantly, his helmet clattering on the concrete. The man unsheathed his enormous sword and swung it deftly, almost casually, as it were made of cardboard, and cleaved the second guard in two near the waist.

Not pausing to consider the carnage he had caused, the swordsman hurried around the corner after the other assailants, who he found, all but the bear-man, congregated in front of a corrugated steel door. The only woman in the party was trying to open it. She held a screwdriver in her mouth and fiddled with the ripped open console beside the door.

"You used to be in SOLDIER alright!" said one of the men. He was leaning casually against a wall. His unkempt dark hair was held back by a red bandanna. He sounded genuinely impressed, but his dark eyes were narrowed in suspicion. "Not everyday you find one in a group like AVALANCHE."

The woman turned suddenly and snatched the screwdriver from her mouth. "SOLDIER!? Aren't they the enemy? What's he doing with us?"

The man held up a hand. "Hold it, Jesse. Ex-SOLDIER. He quit them and now is one of us." He looked at the swordsman is if daring him to say differently. "I didn't catch your name…?"

The blonde man looked reluctant to give it, but after a pause, said "Cloud Strife."

"Cloud, eh? I'm Biggs Darklighter, our guard here is Wedge Antilles and this is—"

"I don't care what your names are. Once this job's over, I'm outta here."

Biggs looked at him with disgust and opened his mouth to say something, but then jerked toward his weapon as he heard heavy footfalls approaching.

"It's okay, it's Barret!" called the fat man, who had been standing guard.

"The hell you doin'!?" The bear-man shouted.

"Barret, you almost gave us a—" Biggs started.

"I thought I told you never to move in a group!"

"Wasn't much place to go! This door's in the way." Biggs jerked his head at it.

"You the only hope for the planet and can't open a damn door?!" Barrett roared.

"I'm working on it!" Jesse yelled as she twisted two wires together. The door shuddered, then screeched as it slid open. The reactor could be seen through it, looming above a few shabby outbuildings. It 's metallic surface sloped upwards , illuminated and turned green by the mako vapor which burst from it's top.

"Our target is the north mako reactor. We meet on the bridge in front of it. Go!" Barret commanded.

Biggs, Wedge, and Jesse ran through. Cloud made a move to go as well, but was blocked by the burly black man.

"Ex-SOLDIER, huh?" Barret frowned down at him. "I don't care what Tifa says. I don't trust ya!" He said, then turned and ran after the others.

Cloud stared up at the bulk of the reactor. He wasn't being paid enough for this. No amount of money would have been worth messing with Shinra. Still, he had other reasons. He put a hand to the hilt of his sword and ran after, through a maze of alleys and outbuildings. He followed the assailants through a non-descript door. Beyond was the bridge. It was about ten feet wide and its floor was a thin metal grating. There was a gap in the plate that held the upper city here, so that one could see through to the shanty town some two hundred feet below. The bridge was in a T-shape, one end led to more outbuildings and the other straight into the reactor. It shook slightly under the pounding of the assailant's feet.

Cloud was slightly behind now. The others met together briefly, then moved towards the reactor, all but Wedge, who crouched near the railing.

"I'll secure the escape passage." Wedge called. "You concentrate on the mission, Cloud!"

But then two guards came running from the opposite side of the bridge, accompanied by a small robot that looked something like a video camera mounted on a pogo stick. The guards opened fire. Cloud drew his sword, planted it into the metal grating and hid behind it like a shield. Bullets ricocheted off of it. Wedge adjusted the red baseball cap he wore backwards on his head, then grabbed a grenade, pulled the pin and tossed it. The robot shot a blue laser which narrowly missed Wedge and melted a hole in the railing beside him. Then the grenade exploded between it and one of the guards, ripping a hole in the metal grating, smashing the robot against a railing and throwing the guard over the edge. The bridge shuddered with the explosion, and the other guard fought to remain on his feet. Cloud pulled his sword out of the metal with a screech. The guard had just regained his balance when Cloud slashed him open from shoulder to hip.

"Ha ha!" Wedge laughed, surprising Cloud. "Not bad!" He grinned wildly. "We're really gonna blow this huge furnace up! This'll be something to see! You go on, Cloud, I'll hold 'em off if there are any more!"

"Right!" Cloud called over his shoulder as he ran for the reactor entrance. "But no more grenades! This bridge isn't that stable!"

Cloud entered the reactor through its black and yellow striped doorway. Beyond was a narrow hall where Barret, Jesse, and Biggs were waiting.

"Yo! This your first time in a reactor?" Barret asked.

"No." _I wish. _Cloud thought. _How could it be?_ "After all, I did work for Shinra."

Barret stared down at Cloud. "The planet's full of Mako energy. People here use it every day."

Cloud shrugged. He didn't like where this was going.

"It's the life-blood of this planet!" Barret said passionately. "But Shinra keeps sucking the blood out with these weird machines!" He hit the wall with his gun-arm for emphasis.

"I'm not here for a lecture. Let's just hurry." Cloud said.

Barret clenched his one fist and scowled at him. "That's it, you're coming with me from now on."

There was a slight pause. Biggs and Jesse stared between Cloud and Barret. Cloud sighed. "So we are going in?" He asked.

Biggs moved to the console by another metallic sliding door.

"Yeah, Biggs and I have got the codes for these doors." Jesse said.

There was a sound like a large spring being sprung. "Code deciphered." Biggs said cheerily, and with a flourish of his hand, the door opened. The four entered a small room. The door closed behind them. There was another door, identical to the last one. Jesse punched in the code for this one. "Think how many people risked their lives, just for these codes." Biggs said as he looked Cloud in the face. Cloud fought the urge to roll his eyes.

There was another sound like a huge spring, and this door opened to reveal the door to an elevator. Jesse pressed the button to call it. The door slid shut behind them. Biggs stayed behind and waved at them as it closed. All according to plan.

"Little by little the reactors'll drain out all the life." Barret said with great seriousness as they walked forward. "And that'll be that."

Cloud shrugged again. "It's not my problem."

Barret stared at him in disbelief. "The Planet's dyin', Cloud!"

Cloud turned away from him. "The only thing I care about is finishing this job before security and the roboguards come."

The three entered the elevator, which slowly made its way downwards. They exited in silence, following Jesse around a large round contraption, down a set of metal stairs and through another yellow and black striped doorway. They climbed up another short flight of stairs. There was a gap in the walkway. Jesse jumped it, then told the two men to be careful as they made the jump, too. Jesse led them down a ladder, then crouched on a piece of scaffolding.

"Okay, I'll stand guard here. You two will go down this ladder, climb over those pipes down to that long ladder on the wall. That walkway down there should lead you right to the heart of the reactor." She looked at Barret. "You've got it?"

Barret pulled a square device about the size of his hand out of a pocket in his utility vest. Jesse nodded and smiled at Cloud. "Be careful, you two."

Cloud and Barret made their way about two stories down the ladder, Barret with some difficulty having only one hand. He swore as he banged his shins against a rung. The ladder ended at yet another metal walkway, this one over a vast reservoir of mako. It glowed a creepy green which overpowered the dim artificial lighting. Falling from the walkway would mean almost certain death.

Cloud and Barret's footsteps echoed against the far away walls and ceiling. Clank. Clank. Clank-clank. Clank. _Clack. _Cloud paused the see what he had stepped on. He picked up his boot and smiled. Where he had stepped there was a crystalline, green orb embedded in a gap in the metal grating. It was about the size of a shooter marble, and almost identical to the two stones embedded in his blade. Materia were pretty common in mako reactors, but they were valuable nonetheless, treasures in this trash heap. Cloud bent to pry it loose. Barret, who had gotten several steps ahead of him, yelled back.

"The hell you doing!? I thought you were in a big damn hurry to get out of here!"

"Materia," Cloud answered "Catch!"

Barret caught the green orb just before it would have hit him squarely in the nose. He scowled, but pocketed it, then moved to the end of the walkway. This was their destination, the heart of the reactor, a series of valves and contraptions which neither man understood, whose function was to convert the mako into electricity. An explosion here would take out the entire structure, and probably about a city block around it as well. Barret forgot his annoyance with Cloud with his excitement.

"When we blow this place, this ain't gonna be nothin' more than a hunka junk," he said with a grin. He took the device Jessie gave him out of his pocket, but then hesitated.

"Cloud, you set the bomb," he said.

"Shouldn't you do it?"

" Jus' do it!" Barret said. "I gotta watch to make sure you don't pull nothin.'"

"Fine, be my guest," Cloud replied, taking the device. He stepped forward and attached it to a valve.

"Watch out! This isn't just a reactor!"

"What!?" Cloud jerked to look behind him. The voice definitely hadn't been Barret's, but Barret was the only one there.

"What's wrong?" asked the gunner.

Cloud shook his head. "It's nothing… sorry." He keyed the sequence to arm the bomb.

Almost immediately an alarm sounded, accompanied by a horrible clanking and a strange mechanical whir. Barret whirled around, gun arm ready, finding no target, but Cloud, who remembered fighting the ninjas of Wutai, knew…

"ABOVE!"

Nested in the rafters above them was a red, six-legged robot. Its shape was a mixture of crab, with two cannons in the place of claws, and scorpion, with a wickedly pointed twitching tail. It was more than three times the size of both men put together.

Just as Barret registered the thing it dropped. The gunner rolled and barely avoided being squashed by it. Cloud quite calmly stepped out of the way. Not bothering to unsheathe his sword, Cloud stretched his hands out in front of him as a green glow emanated from him. A bolt of lightening arced from him to the robot, which convulsed when struck, but seemed otherwise un-phased by the spell. Cloud made a slight "tch" sound, then drew his sword before him in a ready stance. The robot cast a yellowish green light around the area. The light fell upon Cloud, and the robot turned the barrel of one of its cannon-claws upon him, but just then Barret opened fire. A bullet hit the cannon arm aimed at Cloud's head, knocking the shot wide. Barret roared in tandem with his gunarm, continuing to fire. Cloud looked for some weak point in the thing that he could damage with his sword. The visual sensors, maybe? The yellowish green light swept towards Barret. Cloud hefted his sword above his head, jumped, and brought down the full force of his strength and weight in a meat-cleaver like motion, tearing a gap in the armored "head" of the robot and breaking the pincer-like apparatus from which the light came, but not before it could lock on to Barret's location. The robot swept its scorpion-like tail around to strike him. Barret saw, and tried to shift out of the way, but a little too late as the sharp stinger drew across his chest and right arm—his gun arm. Barret howled in pain, but, still bleeding, supported the gun arm with his left and re-opened fire. Cloud drew back, maybe with the new gap in its armor the bolt spell would be more effective. He sheathed his sword and splayed his fingers in front of him, but as the green glow began around him he stopped short. The scorpion had arced its tail above itself, and that meant…

"Barret! Stop! If you attack while its tail's up it'll counterattack with its laser!"

The gunner seemed to have listened, because he stopped firing. Cloud waited, hand on the hilt of his sword, ready and tense. The robot was still. Cloud felt a strange warmth behind him. He turned his head to look at Barret and his eyes grew round. An orange fireball was growing before the barrels of Barret's 

gun arm. Cloud had no idea how the man was doing it, to his knowledge Barret had no materia. It grew to the size of a beach ball, then Barret unleashed it. It exploded on the head of the scorpion. Cloud smelled the acrid scent of too-hot electronics, but other than melting some of its casing, the fireball seemed to have done little damage.

Cloud tackled Barret, and just in time, because the robot fired a powerful laser out of its tail, cutting an arc in the metal walkway where the two men had stood seconds before.

The robot lowered its tail. Barret climbed to his feet. From the floor, Cloud began another bolt spell. Electricity arced from him to the robot. This time, either because of the damage Cloud's sword and Barret's fireball had done to the robot's armor, or simply because it had taken too much damage from Barret's barrage of bullets, the spell had the intended effect. The robot shuddered, convulsed, attempted to advance on them, and then collapsed, dead.

Barret started to pump his gun-arm up and down in celebration, but winced when he remembered his wound. He took a small vial of pale blue, milky colored fluid from a vest pocket, uncorked it and gulped it down. A few seconds and the gashes on his arm and chest began to knit themselves back together.

"We need to get the hell out of here," he said.

"No kidding, that bomb was set to go off in ten minutes, and that was before our fight with this thing."

Without another word, the two men ran for the ladder. Barret went first, pulling himself up several rungs at a time in a strange monkey-like motion with his single but very strong arm. Cloud followed in the more traditional hand over hand manner, only slightly slower. The two scrambled over the pipes and scaffolding they had come by, but when they reached the gap in the walkway they heard a shout over the howl of the alarms.

"Barret! Cloud! _Help!" _

It was Jessie. She was kneeling on the scaffolding a little above them. They had passed right by her in their hurry to get out.

"Jesse!" Barret yelled back. "C'mon, hurry, this place is about to blow!"

"I can't." She sounded miserable, and a little embarrassed. "My foot is stuck."

"Go on, Barret," Cloud said. "I'll get her."

Barret nodded and headed onward. Cloud climbed back to Jesse, whose eyes were wide and scared. Her right foot was jammed in a gap in the scaffolding. Cloud knelt and grabbed her ankle. The two worked together to pull her foot out, with no success.

"You're going to have to take off the shoe," Cloud said urgently.

Jessie unlaced her boot, and together they wiggled her foot out of it.

"Thanks, Cloud," Jessie said earnestly as he helped her up.

The two ran for the exit. They met Biggs and Barret by the security doors. Without a word, Jessie and Biggs re-entered the codes to open them. The group ran from the reactor, Jessie kicking off her other shoe as they went. Just as they met Wedge on the walkway in front of it, they heard the initial explosion. Not pausing to admire their handiwork, Cloud Strife and AVALANCHE fled to avoid the chain reaction.

A/N: So, how'd I do? This is the first fan-fiction I've ever posted. Encouragement and constructive criticism are very welcome.

There are lots of reasons I'm doing this. Mostly, I've never seen an FFVII novelization finished. The story is truly awesome, and it would cool to have a complete one around to show friends who don't play video games or who can't take the now funny looking graphics. Also, all of the partial novelizations I've seen do something I disapprove of, leave out something or change something I liked, didn't see a character the same way I did, or didn't add on to something I think it would have been nice to. So I'm doing it my way. Also, I'm thinking about writing an original work and I want to see if I'm any good at this writing thing. No promises I'll finish this, it's a truly massive undertaking, but I'll try.


	2. Anxious Heart

The Midgar number one Mako reactor exploded in a fireball that could be seen for miles around. A bright, pale green halo of Mako rose around it, expanded to the horizon, and was gone.

Nearby, Cloud Strife and the members of AVALANCHE huddled in a section of hallway. The ceiling had collapsed before and behind them, walling them in. It was perfectly dark except for the blue-tinted light from Biggs' flashlight and the digital read-out of a device Jessie was working with. It booped and beeped as she keyed in a rapid succession of numbers. Barret paced the small area, but compared to his manic, angry energy of earlier, he seemed calm and satisfied.

"That should keep the planet going," he said. "At least a little longer."

"Yeah," Wedge agreed solemnly.

Jessie stood and covered her ears. "Okay. Now everyone get back."

They did so as much as they could in the small space. The flash of the explosive nearly blinded them, and set part of the rubble around them on fire, but they emerged into a back alleyway. Wedge beat out his pants, which were smoldering.

"Alright, now let's get out of here," Barret said "Split up! We rendezvous on the train at the Sector 8 station!"

They ran, all except Cloud. Barret watched them and turned to go himself, but Cloud yelled after him.

"Hey!"

Barret looked back, expressionless, his face flickering in the flames.

"If it's about your money, save it 'til we're back at the hideout."

Cloud nodded, and the two split. Cloud wandered alone through the cobbled streets and found himself in the theatre district. Midgar was the largest city in the world, the home of the richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor. The latter mostly lived below the plate, but even the upper city was starting to look dingy and unloved. No one bothered to pick up trash. Crashed vehicles were pushed to the side of the road and forgotten. He strolled calmly, not wanting to attract attention, but many were running to flee the vicinity of the reactor. A couple of these buffeted a young woman standing on a corner beneath a huge poster for _Loveless. _As Cloud passed her, she touched his arm.

"Excuse me," she said. "Do you know what happened?"

"Nothing," Cloud answered, and he was going to continue that she should probably get out of here, but the basket she was holding made him pause. It was filled with yellow and white flowers, some sort of lilies. There was no vegetation for miles for miles around Midgar. Cloud hadn't seen flowers since… no, no need to think about that. He drew his eyes up to her face. She looked back, puzzled.

"Hey… you don't see many flowers around here," said Cloud, slightly stupidly.

"Oh!" she said. "Do you like them? They're only a gil each."

"That's not very much."

"No. It's not." She gave him a small, mysterious smile that lit up her eyes, greener than Cloud had ever seen.

Cloud reached in his pocket and gave her the coin.

"Oh, thank you!" She smiled again, handed him a white flower, and turned to walk calmly into Sector 8. Cloud watched her as she went. A truck drove by and ruffled the hem of her pink dress.

Cloud held the flower for a moment, a little awestruck. It was real, slightly moist and sweet-smelling. He tucked it into his belt and went on his way by a plaza with a fountain at the center. A power line buzzed and crackled overhead. The area was empty except for a pair of men loudly exchanging theories on the reactor explosion. That it was an accident, that an operator had fallen asleep at his post, that it was sabotage from a Shinra employee. The graffiti on the wall behind them read "Don't be fooled by Shinra! Mako energy doesn't last forever! Mako is the planet's lifesource! The end is in sight! –Protectors of the Planet: AVALANCHE" Cloud snorted. Soon someone would guess the truth.

As he passed through an alleyway, Cloud noticed he was being followed. He glanced behind him. A pair of blue-uniformed MPs gave chase.

"Hey, give it up!" one shouted. "We know who you are!"

Cloud turned. He had unfairly favored the bolt spell tonight. Now was the time to use his _other _materia. Cloud stretched his hands, the familiar green glow encircling him. This spell was not as flashy as the lightening spell, but equally effective. A frigid wind blew toward his attackers. As it touched the guards, they froze, literally, and frost began to encrust them.

When it was clear his opponents were dispatched, Cloud ran. The station wasn't far from here, and the quicker he left the upper city the less likely he was to run into more trouble. But as he entered the main street two more pairs of MPs approached from either side. He pulled back into the alleyway, but more were closing on him from behind, passing the frozen pair. He didn't have time to fight them all and make it to the train station on time, and getting shot wasn't any fun anyway. Cloud surveyed the area, gritted his teeth, then walked into the main street with his hands up in a gesture of surrender.

"That's him!" one of the MPs shouted.

"That's as far as you go!" said another.

Cloud heard a train whistle, which had been his hope. The MPs had him surrounded on three sides, but on the fourth side was a drop off where the train track exited a tunnel. He backed slowly in that direction.

"I don't have time to be messin' around with you guys." He grinned, and his electric blue eyes caught the lamplight.

A couple of the MPs laughed. One said "Enough babbling! Grab him!"

The guards advanced. Cloud felt the rumble of the train passing beneath his feet. He turned, vaulted over a concrete guard rail and landed lightly on top of a passenger car.

The wind flew at his face, stinging his eyes. He knelt to keep from falling as the train accelerated, then turned to wave at his would-be captors. After a moment of surprise they opened fire on him, but it was too late, the train had already passed into the tunnel through the plate, out of reach and out of sight.

"Cloud never came," Wedge said sadly. He swayed slightly with the rhythm of the train.

"Yeah," Biggs said, moving from his perch on a crate to lean against a wall. He staggered slightly as the train accelerated. "Wonder if he was killed."

"There's no way!" said Barret. "You saw him fight!"

"Cloud…" Jessie whispered down at her now bare feet.

"Say… Do you think Cloud's going to stay with us?" Biggs stretched and tried to sound off-hand. "Fight to the end for AVALANCHE?"

"The hell would I know!?" yelled Barret. "Do I look like a mind reader?" He banged his fist on a crate, making the other three wince. "If ya'll weren't such screw-ups, I wouldn't have hired him anyway!"

There was a moment of silence, then Barret banged his fist on the crate again. Everyone turn to look at him.

"Uh… nothin,' sorry."

_BANG._

It came from the direction of the boxcar door. The four glanced up, but as one decided it was nothing.

_BANGBANGBANGBANG._

Biggs jumped up and slid it open cautiously. Cloud somersaulted in from atop the train and landed lightly on his feet.

"Cloud!" Biggs, Jessie, and Wedge exclaimed together.

"Looks like I'm a little late," Cloud commented casually as he stood.

"You damn right you're late!" Barret fumed. "Come waltzin' in here! Makin' a big scene!"

Cloud began to beat the soot off his clothing. "No big deal, just what I always do."

"_Shit. _Havin' everyone wonder about you like that—you don't give a damn 'bout no one but yourself!"

Cloud stopped shaking out his pants and looked up into Barret's coal black eyes, incredulous. "You were _worried _about me!"

"Wha? I'm takin' that outta your money, hot stuff." He looked around at the other AVALANCHE members watching this bit of theater. "Wake up! No need for us to stay in here! We're movin' out! Follow me!"

Wedge followed him and grasped Cloud's shoulder as he passed. "You were great back there, man."

Biggs grinned at him as well. "We'll do even better next time!" He too left the car.

Cloud and Jessie were the only ones left. The wind from the open door ruffled her short, mousy brown hair. She slid it closed then turned to Cloud, smiling shyly.

"Oh, Cloud! Your face is pitch black." She pulled out a handkerchief. Cloud tensed as she moved it toward his face, making the touch awkward. "There you go." She drew breath to speak again, but thought better of it and turned to leave. Cloud followed her. As she reached the door she turned to him again. "Say, thanks for helping me back there, in the reactor." Cloud nodded, and the two entered the passenger car together.

The car was sparsely populated besides the members of AVALANCHE, but Barret was a crowd all by himself, reclining, legs crossed and foot tapping, both good arm and gun arm spread on the top of the green vinyl seats beside him. Two passengers near the front of the car looked nervously from Barret to each other. As Cloud watched, one gestured toward the door. The other nodded in agreement and the two left. Barret took no notice. _Guess he gets that response a lot._

A pleasant, antiseptic female voice announced: "You are on the last train from Sector 8 Station. This train's last stop is Sector 7, Train Graveyard. Expected time of arrival is 12:23 a.m., Midgar Standard Time."

"Hey, Cloud, you might want to have a look at this." Jessie headed toward the front of the car and Cloud followed. She gestured to a monitor to the left. Cloud looked puzzled. "Oh, you might not care," Jessie laughed. "But I like this kind of stuff, bombs and monitors, you know, flashy stuff. It's a complete map of the city," and so it was, computer generated and in great detail. The city was shaped like a wheel, with the space between spokes being each numbered sector. At the end of each spoke was a mako reactor, and at their hub was Shinra headquarters. A series of green dots marked their train's progress into the slums. They circled downward around the pillar that was the main support for the upper city.

"Each town below the plate used to have a name," Jessie said. "But nobody remembers them. Now they're just called by the numbered sectors. That's the kind of place this is. Faceless. The train will pass through a few checkpoints on our way down. They check the background and identity of each passenger on board." Jessie whispered once more. "Obviously we're suspicious, so we're using fake IDs."

The lights on the train dimmed, leaving only the red-tinted emergency lights. "Speak of the devil. We're passing through one now." She grinned. "When the lights go out, you never know what kind of creeps will come out. We're almost home, now, though. That's a relief." Cloud had to agree.

He walked towards the center of the car, somewhat restless. He took one of the handholds hanging from the ceiling near Barret, who looked over his shoulder out the window. The wedge shaped slums could be seen over the walls dividing each sector. "You can see the ground now… This city don't have no day or night." The statement came in a low growl, the closest the man got to pensive. "If that plate weren't there we could see the sky."

Cloud leaned to better take in the view. The city below consisted mostly of plywood, sheet metal, and graffiti, with only a few real buildings, all a dingy sort of brown. What light there was echoed off the iron ceiling of the plate above, making everything seem close and claustrophobic.

"A floating city… pretty unsettling scenery."

Barret turned to look at him. "Huh. Never expect to hear that outta someone like you. You jes' full of surprises." He looked back out the window. "A city on a plate, yeah. It's cuz of that fuckin' _pizza _that people underneath are sufferin'. And the city below fills with the pollution from up above. No wind ta blow it out. On top a that, the reactors keep drainin' up all the energy."

"Then why doesn't everyone move onto the plate?" He asked the question mainly to get Barret's goat, but Barret surprised him by sighing. His breath made a little cloud on the plate glass, covering the reflection of his close cropped beard.

"Dunno. Probably because they ain't got no money. And maybe… 'cause they love their land, no matter how polluted it gets."

"I know." Cloud responded sadly. "No one lives in the slums because they want to. It's like this train. It can't run anywhere except where its rails take it." He continued his stare out the window. The view disappeared behind the sector walls as they neared the ground and rolled into the station.

Barret rallied them together as they stepped onto the platform, and led them a little ways between a pair of abandoned steam engines in the train graveyard across the walk.

"This mission was a success, but we can't get lazy now!" He beat his gun arm in his fist. "Don't ya'll be scared of that explosion, 'cause the next one's going to be even bigger than that! Meet back at the hideout, move out!"

Barret ran and the AVALANCHE members followed him. Cloud fell behind. He left the station and passed by heaps of trash and a pair of guards that stood in the gap in the wall between sectors 6 and 7. Slum dwellers were not allowed transit past curfew, and it was well after midnight now. Shinra had originally intended to allow no transit between sectors at all, but now there were strategically located holes blasted in the tall concrete walls between sectors. The guards were chatting and did not glance up at Cloud. The trash piles transitioned almost gradually into makeshift homes, and then into makeshift shops. At the end of the beaten dirt path that passed as a street was the only real building, made of unpainted wood with real glass windows holding lurid neon signs advertising beer and liquor. The sign over the door read, in flickering yellow, gothic script, "7th Heaven." The bar was a fitting hideout for AVALANCHE, protectors of the planet. A gaggle of barflies, one staggering slightly, were flowing out after last call, shooed out by a very familiar barmaid. Cloud picked up the pace a little bit.

Cloud passed Barret, who was standing guard on the porch. As soon as he opened the door something small and pink collided with his knees. It was a little girl with short brown pigtails. Cloud guessed she was about five years old. She looked up at him with big brown eyes. Cloud looked down at her. She ran to hide behind the bar.

"Marlene! Aren't you going to say hi to Cloud?" asked the barmaid. She shook her head at the little girl, swishing her long, dark hair, then scooted past her out from behind the bar.

"Tifa," Cloud nodded at her.

"Welcome home, Cloud. I saw the explosion on the news, and everyone is back now, so it must have went well. Did you fight with Barret?"

"Yeah," Cloud admitted.

"I thought you might. He's a little hard to take, and you've been in fights ever since we were kids." She gave him a small, experimental smile. "I was worried about you guys, but I guess it worked out alright." She looked Cloud up and down as if to check for any injuries, and noticed the lily tucked in his belt. "A flower! Cloud, you shouldn't have! Where did you get it?"

Cloud was slightly taken aback. He hadn't really intended to give it to her, wasn't entirely sure why he had bought it at all, but he was trapped now. He took the flower from his belt and offered it. "I only paid a gil for it," He warned.

Tifa narrowed her mahogany eyes, disbelieving, but took the offered gift. She filled a highball glass from the sink behind the bar; she had never had any use for a vase until now. As she did, Cloud removed the harness that fixed his giant sword to his back and leaned the length of metal against the bar. "Maybe I should fill the whole shop with flowers," Tifa said. "Then people would come from all over to see them."

_They come from all over to see you, _Cloud thought, but he said "It would just make people sneeze."

Cloud had known Tifa for a very long time, so it was not the first thing he thought of when he saw her, but Tifa was gorgeous. She was curvy and long-legged, and had always had a doe-eyed, girl next door sort of prettiness. Her martial arts training had added a confidence and a hint of danger to her bearing which she had not had when Cloud had been close to her, and which only added to her appeal. Tifa seemed entirely unaware of it, but Cloud imagined the main reason 7th Heaven did such a good trade in the middle of the slums was that when Tifa came to ask sweetly whether her patrons wanted another, most men and probably quite a few women found it difficult to say no to her.

Maybe Tifa was not _entirely_ unaware. She wore a small, strapless black dress which left little to the imagination. Cloud resisted the urge to admire the view as she leaned on the bar, admiring her flower. Good thing, too, because she looked up to suggest gently "Go sit with the others, Barret will start the meeting when he's sure nobody is watching."

Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie were sitting at a table near the door, drinking beer and chatting. The bar was small but tidy and presented a far cheerier atmosphere than most of the slums. A jukebox in the corner played a jazzy tune. Cloud sat by Jessie, who blushed, but did not speak to him.

Barret came storming through the door. "Where's my baby girl? Where's my Marls?" He roared amicably.

"Papa!" Marlene squealed and ran from behind the bar with the enthusiasm native to the very young. She held up her arms to be picked up.

"Hold on a sec, honeychild." Barret flicked a couple of catches on the gun attached to his arm, twisted it off and thunked it down on a table, leaving just a metal cap on the nub of his right forearm. He then scooped her up with bear roar and noogied her affectionately. Marlene squirmed and giggled. As he watched them Cloud wondered what trick of chance or genetics had landed Barret with a white daughter. Marlene seemed to be the only thing that broke Barret's angry, prickly brutishness. It was a good thing something did, at least for Barret, or he would already be dead of an aneurism.

Barret sat Marlene atop his shoulders and called to the table "Come on, fools, let's have this meeting!" He walked to a pinball machine in the corner and stomped his foot. The machine and the section of floor he was standing on lowered themselves with the sound of turning gears. Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie followed him down a ladder, then the pinball machine rose back up to its original position.

"I guess they didn't want you to come, too," Tifa said. "Would you like something to drink instead?"

"Yeah, I'd appreciate it. Something hard." He moved to sit at the bar.

Tifa smiled and pulled down a bottle of Mideelian whiskey. "I sometimes think the others joined AVALANCHE just for the free drinks," she said as she poured him a shot. "You know, I'm really relieved that you made it back safely."

"You shouldn't have worried. That wasn't even a tough job." Cloud said dismissively. He swirled the alcohol in the glass once then knocked it back. It was pretty horrible. Tifa wasn't one to give her best to anyone for free. Aalcohol was more plentiful than many things in the Midgar slums, but even it didn't come cheap.

"I guess not. You were in SOLDIER." Tifa pulled out a damp rag and began wiping down the bar. "Make sure you get your pay from Barret. Do you want another drink?"

"No. I'd better go get it now. I want to get out of here."

Tifa shot him a look, half hurt and half anger, but Cloud didn't notice as he turned toward the pinball machine.

"Cloud… are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah," Cloud spun around to look at her. "Why?"

Tifa shook her head. "No reason." She looked at him briefly as if she was trying to see through him, then looked down at the bar. "You just look tired I guess."

The basement hideout was a square room the same size as the bar above. Biggs and Wedge sat at a table examining a set of diagrams. Jessie sat at a computer monitor, armor gone now, tongue between 

her teeth in concentration. Marlene sat on the floor with a coloring book. Barret was in a corner, working on a punching bag with his good arm. Cloud watched him critically as the pinball machine lowered itself to the floor. Fortunately Barret specialized in ranged weapons. He had a powerful swing, but any opponent worth a damn would be able to see it coming for a mile.

"Yo, Strife! Somethin' I wanna ask you." He gave the bag one last punch and then turned to face him. "Was there anyone from SOLDIER fighting us today?"

"None. I'm positive."

Barret frowned down at him. "You sound pretty sure."

Cloud snorted. "If there was anyone from SOLDIER you wouldn't be standing here now."

"Don't go thinkin' you're so bad just 'cause you were in SOLDIER," Barret said as he advanced on him. "Yeah, you're strong, probably all them guys in SOLDIER are," he allowed, but then poked Cloud in the chest. "Don't forget, your skinny ass is workin' for AVALANCHE now! Don't get no ideas 'bout hangin' on to Shinra!"

Barret and Cloud were less than a foot from each other now. The position was more than awkward. Barret had probably expected Cloud to back up. Barret led mostly by intimidation, and that probably worked okay with the others, but Cloud had faced down opponents far more frightening and formidable than Barret Wallace. Up until now Cloud had been irritated but not angry with the man. Now he was trying to intimidate him and that pissed him off. When he spoke it was low and dangerous.

"Stayin' with Shinra? You asked me a question and I answered it. I don't belong to your terrorist organization. I don't have to put up with this. I'm going upstairs. I want to talk about my money." But when Cloud turned to the pinball machine, there was Tifa blocking his way.

"Wait, Cloud—"

"Let him go, Tifa. Looks like he still misses the Shinra!"

"Shut up!" he said, his cool now lost. "I have no love for Shinra or SOLDIER." He pushed past Tifa and stomped the board to make the elevator rise. The gears whirred into motion. "But don't get me wrong. I _don't_ care about AVALANCHE. Or the planet, either."

When he had risen about two feet, Tifa jumped onto the elevator with him. The thought of pushing her off entered his mind, but he banished it and glared at her instead. He went to gather his sword as soon as the elevator reached the top.

President Shinra's voice came from the Television behind the bar "Tonight the Midgar number one reactor was bombed. The terrorist group AVALANCHE has claimed responsibility. AVALANCHE is expected to continue its reign of terror, but citizens of Midgar, there is no need to fear. I have mobilized SOLDIER to protect our citizenry from this senseless…"

Cloud strapped on his back sheath. Tifa was not far behind him. "Listen, Cloud, I'm asking you: _Please _join us."

"Sorry, Tifa."

"The planet is dying. Slowly but surely it's _dying. _Someone has to do something."

"So let Barret and his buddies do it." He sheathed his blade and went for the door. "It's got nothin' to do with me."

"You're really leaving!? You're just going to walk away and ignore me? You're going to forget your promise?"

Cloud's hand stopped on the doorknob. He spun to look at her. "What?"

"So you have forgotten."

"What _promise_, Tifa?" His weirdly bright eyes bored into her.

"Look, it was at the well."

Cloud looked like she had hit him in the face with a board. He did remember, but he hadn't thought it had been important.

"Yeah…" He looked into Tifa's eyes. "I told you to meet me one night. I didn't think you were going to come."

"But I did."

"And I told you I was leaving Nibelheim."

"And that you wanted to be a hero like Sephiroth and that you were going to join SOLDIER. I was afraid you weren't ever coming back, and I made you _promise." _She was near tears now._ "_That when you got famous, and if I was ever in a bind…"

"I'd come and rescue you." He finished and looked away. "Tifa… I was fourteen when I said that. I'm not famous and I'm not a hero. I can't keep that promise."

"But you got your childhood dream, didn't you? You became a SOLDIER."

Barret emerged out of the hole in the basement, saving Cloud from having to answer.

"A promise is a promise, big-time SOLDIER. Here!" He tossed a small pouch at him. Cloud dumped out the coins inside and counted them.

"Fifteen hundred gil? Don't make me laugh."

"What, then you're leaving—" Tifa started desperately, but Cloud was looking at Barret.

"You got the next mission lined up, right? I'll do it for three thousand."

"What!?"

"Someone's got to take care of you jokers."

Barret looked like he would have liked to throw Cloud out a window, but Tifa grabbed Barret's arm and stood on tiptoe to whisper in his ear. Barret looked disgruntled, then whispered something back. He grimaced at Cloud. Tifa looked between them nervously.

"Two thousand!"

Cloud nodded in agreement and Barret turned back to the basement.

Tifa gave Cloud a smile like the sun emerging from behind, well, a cloud. "Thank you _so_ much, Cloud"

Though he already knew he was going to regret his decision, Cloud couldn't quite resist the urge to smile back.


End file.
